Smart future: Complete electric vehicle sample heading to Samoa

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The future is here with Samoa’s first full Electric Vehicle (E.V.) sample expected to arrive as early as next year.

Ford Hyundai Country Manager, Simon Fruean, confirmed the plan, saying it is the part of the company’s vision to create a smart future with more innovative technology.

E.V's, he added, is something that have always been on the agenda for their Samoa based brand.

Now it’s going to be a reality as they move in the general direction of the international automotive industry who are getting serious about their corporate environmental responsibility in helping to decrease carbon emissions.

“It’s coming, there’s no doubt about it,” said Mr. Fruean. “Right now every automotives are moving towards making E.V's which they are making already. That’s what we looking at because they have zero petro consumption and zero emissions.”

The company aims to bring in their own sample next year, starting with a sedan model to test in Samoa.

Mr. Fruean says the benefits of such vehicles in Samoa are worth the expensive price tag.

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“They won’t be cheap, you’re looking at a proper Electric Vehicle in the hundreds thousands,” he said.

“But there are huge benefits and savings because there are no expenses on gas and almost zero maintenance on the car. You have to replace things like brakes but then basically you come to pick up your car and we won’t see you for a couple of years."

“These cars can run 200 km on full battery, that’s quite long."

“Charging wouldn’t be more frequent than normal. But there definitely still needs to be sufficient spots, it’ll be quite a set up but you’re not setting up a big gas station."

“A very impressive feature of these cars is that every time you press on the brake, through kinetic energy, it re-charges the battery. You might have very long intervals before you might recharge them.”

The Country Manager says that he’s aware the Government are interested in Electric vehicles and may do their own testing.

He hopes that they will work to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to encourage the transition to more carbon emission free vehicles in Samoa.

“I don’t know what the government plans are and I hope we can keep up with their plans, we don’t want to miss out on the opportunity,” he said.

“We are constantly monitoring that and asking government about it and one thing that’s pending is approval from them on installing these charging stations."

“Our two brands (Ford and Hyundai) have very strong resources for E.V's and we are confident that we can cater for whatever the government needs on the E.V's, even installation of the charging stations.”